For companies that depend on selling productive assets, otherwise known as business equipment, it is advantageous to know which potential customers are most likely to purchase such equipment. Productive assets can be described as any piece of equipment that is designed to allow a business to conduct operations. Examples include agricultural equipment, automotive tools & equipment, computer equipment, construction equipment, office machines such as copiers and fax machines, dental equipment, excavation equipment, gym equipment, manufacturing equipment, medical equipment, recreation equipment, restaurant equipment, telephone systems, trucking equipment, vending machines, woodworking equipment, construction equipment such as graders and haulers, and other more specialized equipment such as satellite receivers or network servers.
Productive assets usually have long established markets with a few major manufactures and a vast array of distribution channels and sales strategies. Business equipment also tends to be of a high dollar value, and is very often leased or financed instead of purchased outright. According to the Equipment Leasing Finance Association (ELFA) $600 billion dollars of capital expenditures are financed in the United States every year. Nearly half of that total, over $250 billion, is for equipment leases. It is also estimated that over 80% of U.S. businesses lease all or some of their equipment. Most of the time business equipment is sold or leased to customers that are already using older equipment of a similar nature. Thus, it is important for business equipment sellers to know what equipment their potential customers are currently using. However, there is currently no simple way to check what type of equipment any one company uses.
Business equipment sellers currently attempt to find potential customers by asking the companies in their market about the equipment they are using, and when their lease may be expiring. They then may keep track of this information. The most popular way to do this is by implementing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database system. Sales people will manually type the leasing information that they obtain into a database where it can be stored, organized, and manipulated. The main disadvantage to this method is that it takes a large amount of human capital to obtain, and enter this information into a CRM database.
Sales people must attempt to find the companies that are most likely to buy new equipment. A further disadvantage to the current method is that a great deal of man-hours are required to find the prospects most likely to buy. Sales people must find potential buyers who currently use, or need the type of equipment that they sell. Then they must try and figure out when these potential buyers will be ready to buy new equipment. Another disadvantage to this method is that some potential buyers will not be identified, because these sales people are really guessing about who may need new equipment.
Given current methods, there is a need for an efficient way to identify customers of productive assets.